The bursting of the real estate bubble and the ensuing recession have hurt jobs, home prices and now Social Security.
This year, the system will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes, an important threshold it was not expected to cross until at least 2016, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Stephen C. Goss, chief actuary of the Social Security Administration, said that while the Congressional projection would probably be borne out, the change would have no effect on benefits in 2010 and retirees would keep receiving their checks as usual.
The problem, he said, is that payments have risen more than expected during the downturn, because jobs disappeared and people applied for benefits sooner than they had planned. At the same time, the program’s revenue has fallen sharply, because there are fewer paychecks to tax.
Analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point ”” the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances.
Read it all from the front page of yesterday’s New York Times.
For the “boomers” who decided to have very few, if any, children: what goes around, comes around. Statmann
And the administration says to us, ” look at how successful social security is, so you know this health care reform will be too”!!
[blockquote]Analysts have long tried to predict the year when Social Security would pay out more than it took in because they view it as a tipping point — the first step of a long, slow march to insolvency, unless Congress strengthens the program’s finances. [/blockquote]
There is no “unless”. Current debt is about $12.6 Trillion. Current deficit is about $1.4 Trillion. Social Security unfunded liability is about $14.2 Trillion. Median family income is about $61,000. They can tax all the earnings of everyone and not be able to pay for all of this. Our government is spending more than we can pay. It’s just that simple.